After graduating a semester early from Cornell University in New York, Willy Franzen became aggravated with entry-level job searching. This is when he decided to build a website to make the process easier for students and graduates to find a job.
One Day, One Job, which was launched in 2007, has helped more than one million job seekers.
In 2008, Franzen, also the founder of the website One Job and One Day, One Internship decided to do an experiment with Facebook advertisements where students and recent graduates created advertisements to pitch themselves, targeting employers.
Franzen said that he started out playing with Facebook’s advertising platform when the idea came to him.
“At first I was trying to get users to the sites,” Franzen said in an e-mail interview. “Then I tried attracting employers as an advertiser, which wasn’t very successful. Then the idea popped into myhead.”
Out of all the people Franzen contacted, only five committed.
While none of them received a job from these advertisements, each has made several connections with employers. Some have had interviews, received several e-mails, were given advice and had an overall positive experience.
The objective of the advertisements isn’t to receive a job, but to just get your foot in the door, Franzen said.
“Networking is really hard for new graduates,” Franzen said. “This is a fantastic way for them to meet new people who can help them with the job search.”
According to recruitmentdirectory.com, studies show that 70-80 percent of job opportunities are never advertised giving social media the name “the hidden job market.”
Within the last few years, social networking has emerged from a fun way to keep in contact with friends to a way to establish relationships with future employers and possibly obtain a career.
“Social media is a great tool, but the real key is demonstrating your value. If you can help an employer make more money, they’ll probably hire you,” Franzen said.
CareerBuilder.com, the nation’s largest online job site, surveyed more 31,000 employers from May 22, 2008 through June 13, 2008.
Survey results showed that one-in-five employers search social networking sites before hiring someone.
Forty-five percent of employers, compared to 22 percent in 2007, said they use social media as a way to evaluate applicants. And 11 percent of hiring managers plan to start doing this.
“I think that social media for the job search is overhyped in a lot of ways,” Franzen said. “Social media hasn’t changed the fundamentals of what it takes to get a job, but it does make things a lot easier.”
Katie Johnson, director of social media relations at Fresno State, said making a human connection is the most important thing when looking for a job via social media.
“Don’t just spam people with your resume, but use it to connect with someone you might have a shared passion with,” Johnson said. “And move that virtual relationship to a real-life professional relationship.”
Johnson said that for those who use social media, it’s a community. More people are using it to network and that’s why people are seeing a rise in the importance of using social media when it comes to looking for a job.
For Johnson, the most important social networking site is Twitter. But for others, she said, it depends on what their interests are and what they’re looking for.
Johnson found her current social media intern, Pep Dekker, through Twitter.
She said she wanted an intern who was familiar with social media, especially Twitter and YouTube, so they would understand the social networking jargon because it would benefit their communications team.
Dekker contacted Ford’s social media director, through Twitter with a social media question and introduced himself as a Fresno State student.
“I saw his tweet and was impressed that he had the interest and confidence to reach out to a professional like Scott,” Johnson said. “I contacted him immediately via Twitter and asked him to apply for my internship.”
Dekker, an entrepreneurship major, said the lines between a personal and professional life are becoming very thin, so he sees how Twitter and Facebook can be a way to communicate to both areas simultaneously.
“Fortunately, I realized that the traditional resume is dead. My PDF version wasn’t going to make me stand out from rest of the competition,” Dekker said. “Having an online profile and presence makes my personal brand that much more hirable and real.”